I've spent almost my entire career as a journalist covering tech in and around Silicon Valley, meeting entrepreneurs, executives and engineers, watching companies rise and fall (or in the case of Apple, rise, fall and rise again) and attending confabs and conferences. Before joining Forbes in February 2012, I had a very brief stint in corporate communications at HP (on purpose) and worked for more than six years on the tech team at Bloomberg News, where I dived into the financial side of tech. Before that, I was Silicon Valley bureau chief for Interactive Week, a contributor to Wired and Upside, and a reporter and news editor for MacWeek. The first computer game I ever played was Zork, my collection of now-vintage tech T-shirts includes a tie-dye BMUG classic and a HyperCard shirt featuring a dog and fire hydrant. When I can work at home, I settle into the black Herman Miller Aeron chair that I picked up when NeXT closed its doors. You can email me at cguglielmo@forbes.com.

Apple's New iPad May Be Mind Blowing; Co-Founder Woz wants more Siri

Less than a week after Apple CEO Tim Cook told shareholders the company was working on “some products that will blow your mind,” Apple sent out an invite to a March 7 event that suggests it is readying the third-generation of the iPad tablet.

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs with the iPad. Image via Wikipedia

“We have something you really need to see. And touch,” Apple said in its media invitation earlier today.

Cook, who took over from Steve Jobs in August, will likely emcee the event at Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco — the same stage where Jobs introduced the iPad in 2010 and its successor, the iPad 2, in March 2011. Analysts are expecting a new touchscreen tablet with 4G LTE wireless, a faster processor, and a higher-resolution screen that may incorporate the Retina display technology and Siri voice recognition from the iPhone. But will it be mind blowing? Shaw Wu, an analyst with Sterne Agee in San Francisco, thinks so.

“iPad 3 could be that `mind-blowing’ product,” said Wu, who has a “buy” rating on Apple shares. “The key feature we hear that it may include is a 4G LTE wireless modem, which would make web browsing a very pleasant user experience — almost as good as a strong PC hardwired connection.”

Apple has sold more than 55 million iPads since Jobs introduced what he called a “magical device” two years ago. The Cupertino, California company has since seen demand surge — in the first quarter after it went on sale in April 2010, Apple sold 3.27 million tablets. In the most recent quarter, which covered the 2011 holiday shopping season, Apple sold a record 15.4 million iPads. That made it the second-best selling product after iPhones, with iPad sales last quarter at $9.15 billion and iPhone sales of $24.4 billion. Sales of the Macintosh computer came in at $6.6 billion. (Total sales for the quarter were $46.3 billion.)

Wu, of Sterne Agee, says Apple could sell 51 million iPads this year alone — and “this could turn out conservative.”

Apple’s share added $9.65 and rose to a record high today of $535.41 on the Nasdaq Stock Market in regular trading. After hours, the shares ticked up to a bit, pushing Apple’s market value past $500 billion.

iPad Factories, Trademark Fight

The new version comes as Apple is facing criticism over how its suppliers in China treat workers who make the device. The Fair Labor Association, which began inspecting factories and facilities in China on Feb. 13 where Apple says more than 90 percent of its products are made, said it will post the results of its investigation in early March.

At the same time, Proview is in a fight with Apple over two trademarks for the iPad name in China. Apple is expected to appeal the trademark case to a higher court in China soon.

Adding in the Retina display technology, similar to that used on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, will make the iPad’s display “even crisper and life-like,” Wu said. “This significant refresh will likely help drive higher iPad sales and help further differentiate from arguably the only real competitor in the market, Amazon’s Kindle Fire — not to mention the myriad of Google Android offerings out there.”

Apple sells six models of the iPad, three with support for WiFi networks that start at $499, and three versions, starting at $629, that include support for 3G networks from AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Earlier today, Best Buy cut the price on the iPad 2 by $50 — suggesting that the retailer is clearing out inventory ahead of a new product release.

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The iPad shown is an iPad 2. You can tell by zooming in on the invitation image. The characters on the display appear to have the resolution of the iPad2 relative to the photorealism of the hand pointing to it and to the retina display expected to be in the iPad3. Probably most people reading this article realize this, but some may not so I just wanted to clear that up.

For you business travelers preparing to stand in line for one of the new iPads, I just wrote about some cases that would be a good idea to have on hand to protect your investment: http://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2012/02/28/5-things-you-need-to-keep-your-gear-travel-safe/

Have been a long time customer of j. C. Penny’s… Since they need Ellen Degeneres to represent them. I. No longer need to shop there. She hardly represents the family values of their family customers. Wilson

Siri is already extremely modifiable if you jailbreak your iphone/ipad. There are several tweaks that allow you to do just what Woz suggests, like launching apps, turning on/off wifi and other system controls. That’s for basics, but it can do much more like custom responses, etc.

So the capability is already there to make Siri much more robust than it is now. Of course, Apple has to do it their way, which is fine, you just have to wait for them to get around to it.

For example, why does Apple still insist on making often used toggles, like turning on/off wifi or bluetooth such a pain by having to navigate through the settings app? A popular jailbreak app like IntelliscreenX, which substantially fleshes out Apple’s notification center, makes such things as simple as a swipe and a tap, even from the lock screen.

Apple has to live up to such HIGH expectation, it’s crazy. The good news, Apple seems to be going green … hpe this accurate, interesting story here about it http://www.richmakesyourich.com/2012/02/green-apple-all-part-of-profit-pie.html